The Browser Appliance Loading Screen

The Browser Appliance Ready for Internet Browsing

This degree of separation allows for absolute privacy (which once again you’ll find precious little of in a Windows environment) by setting the Virtual Machine to not saving changes made to the Virtual Machine during it’s use will not be saved.

Compatibility & Portability

In order to allow the Virtual Machine to more easily be controlled and restricted by the real machine, the drivers used to emulate (read: pretend to be) hardware is very standard and as a result will almost always be compatible with what you have installed, with the exception of graphics cards.

Another result of the Virtual Machine having very standard drivers is that you can literally copy a Virtual Machine ‘image’ from one PC to another and as long as there is a Virtual Machine Player (VMware have players for Windows and Linux with a Mac version on the way) the image will run issue free. In-fact, I carry around with me five operating system images, a Windows XP, Windows 98, Ubuntu, Server 2003 and Suse 10.1, all of which I can access within a few minutes of popping the CD/DVD into the tray. Amazing stuff.

Installing Windows XP using Virtualization in OSX

Conclusion
Read: Phew, the end!

We’ve only just scratched the surface of what is possible with only JUST VMware’s free player and their appliances today and this guide by no means explains the entirety of what Virtualisation can do, but hey, if you’ve ever wanted to play with Linux or have the want or need to browse securely or privately, give VMware’s free player a try, you won’t regret entering the world of virtualisation that awaits you!

Written by Guest Writer: Luke Shillabeer